One hot potato!

ASHLEY, N.D. (KFYR) - The iconic and popular Kroll’s Diner has lots of German food on its menu and it’s no secret half of state’s population has German roots. For one small town in North Dakota those ties led to one hot cooking competition.

Eva Schlepp’s potato salad is legendary in the small town of Ashley. The recipe is so good that now it’s bringing the community international attention.

“She got me off guard so I said yeah, I would,” Schlepp said.

Many North Dakotans have deep German roots. Two journalists from Germany were inspired to do a story after reading an article about people speaking German in the state.

“I was so surprised, what I know, there is Germans in Southern America, but Dakota, why?” said Maurice Gajda, German TV host.

Maurice Gajda has a love for potato salad and when he heard of Eva’s recipe, he knew he had to find out what made hers so special. While Eva’s whole recipe won’t be revealed, it starts with boiled potatoes and ends with her homemade sweet cabbage.

“A lot of onions is always good,” said Schlepp.

The tv crew spent the day filming Eva making her potato salad. The day ended with a food tasting competition between Eva’s and Maurice’s salads, voted on by the community of Ashley.

“The one I like is this one here, it’s gone,” said Ashley resident.

“I like this one because of the sweetness, it actually has a bit of sourness up front and then the sweetness snuck in,” said an Ashley resident.

“I like both of them,” said another Ashley resident.

The salad that got the most claps got to take home the satisfaction of being the potato salad champion. That title will have to be shared as the competition ended in a tie.

“It’s the people, of course I learned a lot, but it is the people I will never forget,” said Gadja.

Eva got her recipe from her sister and has been serving it for over 30 years.

German is the second most spoken language in the state.

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